MT; I'm about to give up on hanging packs too.  After the historic wind storm that blew down a lot of trees; the last couple trips it seems harder to find a suitable tree.  On my last trip my efforts with hanging ropes pulled down a number of branches.  Lucky for us we go in October and there isn't much bear activity.  We mainly hang the packs to keep the mice out of the packs.  I'll probably use a combination in the future.

starwatcher